US research uncovers business opportunities for India BPO industry

LISBON, PORTUGAL: There is an opportunity for India’s BPO industry, as US-based Contact Centers are failing to engage in significant proactive CRM on behalf of its customers, according to a research report becoming available in India today.

Altitude Software, a leading independent contact centre solutions vendor, and ContactBabel, contact center industry analysts, today announced findings on the Outbound and Call Blending activities of US Contact Centers, from the “US Contact Center Operational Review 2007”, based on a study of the performance, operations, technology and HR aspects of 204 Contact Centers.

The research, sponsored by Altitude Software, shines a new light on US Contact Center’s Outbound CRM “lost opportunity”, with only 26 percent of contact centers surveyed engaged in proactive customer service, and a mere 11 percent actively cross-selling or up-selling to existing customers. Feeding into this state of affairs is a clear “technology gap” in contact centers, with 45 percent using only basic (or preview) dialers and 55 percent using predictive and progressive dialers, better suited for legislative compliance and for sensitive “CRM calls”.

“The report findings underline the extent to which contact centers are failing to make an intelligent use of the available technology to deliver proactive customer service – which can be a strong brand builder as well as an effective call avoidance tactic.” said Steve Morrell, principal analyst at ContactBabel.

“India’s BPO industry needs to put itself in a position where it can help companies addressing the US market reinvent customer service through “proactive customer care”, enabling contact centers to use outbound calling to increase customer goodwill” stated Sanjay Sapru, country head, Altitude Software India . “Businesses can use the contact center to proactively contact affected customers/groups when service disruptions are anticipated. Or they can pursue customer satisfaction follow-up after service fulfillment. This business approach can prevent inbound call peaks, allow for better staffing and resource management, and above all increase customer satisfaction”

The Altitude uCI 7.5 suite is designed to help companies reinvent customer service through “proactive customer care”. Altitude Software’s solutions for successful proactive contact include pacing mode modules – Preview; Predictive; Power; and a Call Classifier. The Altitude Unified Dialer’s main function is to both automate and add intelligence to the dialing process as it is one of the most important operations in any outbound contact center. Dialing leverages customer information to determine the best time and the most economic way to make successful contact, taking into consideration available human resources and compliance with applicable legislation. Altitude Software has recently developed an automated process to submit outbound dialing campaign lists running on its Altitude Unified Dialer solutions to PossibleNOW’s US consumer data privacy management services.

In the last couple of years, Altitude Software has been investing significantly in its Indian operations where it sees strong potential for the future. It has established successful operations with several customers such as Sutherland Global Group, GoldShield , ADI Media (Communication today Group), RMS, Bird Group and more. Local service delivery capabilities have been built with fast increasing numbers of Altitude-certified engineers, and a fast expanding Altitude partner network, including companies such as Wipro–3D, Orange Business Services & Bhrigus Software.

Source: India PRwire